Abstract

Site-based conservation is widely recognized as a fundamental requirement for the maintenance of biodiversity. We carried out a rapid biological assessment from 17 March to 14 May 2011 in the southwestern part of the provisionally protected rainforest corridor between Marojejy, Anjanaharibe-Sud and Tsaratanana protected areas (COMATSA), northern Madagascar, to assess its biodiversity richness and species conservation status. We recorded 248 endemic vertebrate species, including 80 amphibians, 52 reptiles, 79 birds, 27 small mammals and 10 lemurs. Of these 248 species, 36 are threatened including one Critically Endangered (one lemur), nine Endangered (two amphibians, four reptiles and three lemurs) and 26 Vulnerable (10 amphibians, six reptiles, four birds, one small mammal and five lemurs). For herpetofauna species, the pair COMATSA – Marojejy was the only site that had a similarity value greater than 0.50. For birds and lemurs, values of similarity in three pairs of sites COMATSA – Marojejy, COMATSA – Anjanaharibe-Sud and Marojejy – Anjanaharibe-Sud exceeded those of herpetofauna in COMATSA – Marojejy. The inclusion of the COMATSA into the new protected area network in Madagascar is supported by our findings.

Garreau, J.-M. and Manantsara, A. 2003. The protected-area complex of the Parc National de Marojejy and the Réserve Spéciale d’Anjanaharibe-Sud. In: The Natural History of Madagascar. S. M Goodman and J. P. Benstead (eds.), pp 1451–1458. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.